Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Recently I
participated in a study for a biology course. The course focused on behaviors
observed in the human population and attempted to identify them as adaptive, or
maladaptive to the species, now or in the context of the past. One of the
questions we wanted to answer in our study was whether or not religion was
created circumstances that were incompatible with religion. Unfortunately that
part of the study was cut due to the massive amount of data that we received
and the time crunch we were experiencing.

Recent
events in Iraq have generated a significant amount of social media activity.
The ISIS organization is conducting a civil war that borders on genocidal.
Their primary target, as reported by the media has been the local Christian
population. Religious crusades are far from new. Religious fighting between
Christians and Muslims are certainly not unheard of. What particularly interests
me about this event is that it is occurring in modern times. This allows one to
observe the events without relying on any bias that can be attributed to the
writers of history. Of course this does not account for the bias of media
outlets or the restriction of confidential information by the federal
government.

What
interests me about this situation is the response to this issue domestically.
Let’s put this in evolutionary terms. A population is in a conflict with a
neighboring population. The origin of this conflict is a lack of resources, or
mating opportunities. It is solely due to a difference in ideology. The evolutionary
smart thing to do would be to fight or hide.

The other
night I was going through my social media feeds and came across a post related
to the ISIS attacks in Iraq. Some of the comments made me believe that people
would allow their religion to override mechanisms that would allow them to
survive, and consequently reproduce and support their offspring. If these
people identified themselves as Christians in a hostile environment, they, as
well as their offspring would be less likely to survive.

So then the question must be asked, is religion detrimental to the evolution of the human species?

I debated removing the names of the people on FaceBook that made these statements. But then I decided that if they felt that they could post their opinions, they should have their names attached to them. If they truly believe this, they can defend these beliefs in a public forum.

The only reasonably smart answer I found. But don't worry, the devout jump on this lady relatively quickly.

It might also be worth noting to those who suggested we need God in our country, that Iraq has two God’s in their country and that doesn’t seem to be working out for them too well. Perhaps nations would do better with a little less God.

Yeah, God will not forsake you, he's done a bang up job protecting the Christians of Iraq.....